PLAYER RATINGS | Monaco 2-1 Marseille: Balogun and Golovin continue ASM’s winning run

PLAYER RATINGS | Monaco 2-1 Marseille: Balogun and Golovin continue ASM’s winning run Ligue 1 McDonald’s, Round 28, 05/04/26 AS Monaco blew the race for the third automatic UEFA Champions League place wide open with a win over European challengers Olympique de Marseille (2-1). The Match OM’s fans remained silent, seemingly in protest, for the first 30 minutes. During that period, it was a game lacking in any rhythm, punctuated by a couple of half-chances, one for Maghnes Akliouche and one from Hamed Traoré.

The latter at least elicited a save from Lukas Hradecky. It was when the Marseille fans broke their strike that rhythm and intensity arrived, and it was the visitors who looked the more dangerous. Habib Beye’s side opted for directness and it almost paid off when Igor Paixao latched onto a long ball over the top, drawing another good save from Hradecky at his near post.

Neither side made a change at half-time and the result was much of the same. Neither side managed to build a sustained period of pressure, but Monaco didn’t need to to open the scoring thanks to an Aleksandr Golovin volley. The Russian steamed into the Marseille box to latch onto Jordan Teze’s inviting cross.

Hradecky continued to be tested, but unlike Geronimo Rulli at the other end, he was equal to the efforts, making a comfortable save from Paixao and significantly better ones from Hojbjerg and Quinten Timber. In his defence, there was little Rulli could have done about Monaco’s second, a sumptuous chip from Folarin Balogun. He profited from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s misplaced pass before stripping CJ Egan-Riley for pace; the England youth international, in his efforts to catch up with Balogun, suffered a muscular injury and was swiftly replaced.